1835-1840

TITUS COAN: GOD'S SERVANT

Just prior to the missionary meeting
of 1836, a new member of the mission team had arrived in 1835 in
Hilo, on the island of Hawaii, to become the pastor of the church.
His name was Titus Coan. The church in 1836 had 23 members,
although Coan reported in his missionary report the Sunday
attendance was 300 adults and 100 to 150 children. This church was
about to see a massive change, for God had brought to the islands
the second ingredient for the Great Awakening, the man of
faith.

Titus Coan was born in Connecticut in 1801,
the child of a devotedly religious family. His mother was the aunt
of Asahel Nettleton, the well-known evangelist of the Second Great
Awakening in New England. Although exposed to the gospel most of
his life he did not surrender himself to Christ until 1829, during
a revival in his home town after a prolonged illness. His
surrender was wholehearted and he began to pursue opportunities to
involve himself in ministry. In the summer of 1830 he met with
Charles Finney and a number of his associates while working with a
minister friend in New York. After two years of study at Auburn
Theological Seminary, a brief stint as a missionary in Patagonia,
he married and soon after took his bride to become missionaries to
the Sandwich Islands.

It is important to weigh Coan's
contributions to the revival in light of all that happened. All
the islands experienced a revival. However, it was the island of
Hawaii's revival that accounted for 3/4 of all the new members
added to the church. Secondly, it was Titus Coan's belief and
those like him that helped to spur on the revival. Let me explain
this point. S.E. Bishop in his article published in the March 1902
issue of The Friend gives an interesting insight. He states, "...I
think it true that the severer forms of Calvinism presented by the
earlier missionaries were less adapted to facilitate the work of
the Divine Spirit, than were the gentler and sweeter forms in
which the Gospel was presented by those more lately arrived who
had been in the wonderful revival under Finney's preaching." He
goes on to tell his own personal experience as a child in hearing
the gospel presented by these new missionaries. He went on to
conclude that the "entrance of these devoted men into the Hawaiian
work gave a new impulse to the evangelization of the people. There
was a more direct and efficient presentation of Christ, less
encumbered by the old and stiff Westminister forms of doctrine.
This new preaching undoubtedly contributed much to the great
spiritual awakening among the Hawaiians.'' In another article in
December 1902, Bishop names the missionaries who experienced the
Charles G. Finney revivals in New York. They were, "Dibble, Coan,
Lyons, and Lowell Smith, whose souls had felt the peculiar
kindling of the Spirit and who brought with them His peculiar
flame.''

These new missionaries had experienced
revival in the United States and believed God for revival in their
respective fields. They caught a vision, a new vision of what God
could do, without which the revival could not have happened. This
vision of revival was all encompassing in that they did the very
things they had seen God use to bring revival in the United
States. Dr. Rufus Anderson recorded that: "the means employed were
those commonly used during times of revival in the United States,
such as preaching, the prayers of the church, protracted meetings,
and conversing with individuals or small companies." He went on to
note that during "the protracted meetings much care was given to
the plain preaching of revealed truths, with prayer in the
intervals." He even jotted down some of the topics preached which
were so effective: "The gospel a savor of life or death; the
danger of delaying repentance; the servant who knew his Lord's
will and did it not; sinners not willing that Christ should reign
over them; halting between two opinions; the balm of Gilead; the
sinner hardening his neck; God not willing that any should
perish." Anderson states that the topics most insisted on was the
sin and danger of refusing an offered Savior."

The rationale for the reproducing of what
God had done in the revival movement in the United States is
provided by Titus Coan who found that "like doctrines, prayers and
efforts seemed to produce like fruits."

Not only did Coan take the success of the
Finney revivals and reproduce it in Hawaii, he characterized what
attitude a missionary was to have if they were to be used by God
powerfully to bring forth a great harvest. He exemplified the
incarnation principle, love in action. Historian Gaven Daws
comments that "Love was the driving force in his life: he loved
his wife, he loved Christ, and he loved his work." In a letter
Coan wrote to colleagues concerning the passion of his early
Christian love he stated: "When I came to these islands, and
before I could use the Hawaiian language, I often felt as if I
should burst with strong desire to speak the word to the natives
around me. And when my mouth was opened to speak of the love of
God in Christ, I felt that the very chords of my heart were
wrapped around my hearers, and that some inward power was helping
me to draw them in, as the fisherman feels when drawing in his net
filled with fishes.''

S.E. Bishop spent his childhood in Hawaii
and Titus Coan was his spiritual father. He comments on Coan's
"personal magnetism of love" that drew him, "sweetly and
irresistibly, to the love of God in Christ." He goes on to mention
how in later life he personally met Finney and was influenced by
his intellectual and spiritual power, but he never met anyone that
matched the "winning power of love" like that of his spiritual
father, Titus Coan."

The incarnation is expressed so beautifully
in John 1:14, "the word became flesh and dwelt among us." This is
what Titus Coan attempted to emulate. His love for the people was
expressed first by the mastery of the Hawaiian language and
secondly by his desire to preach the gospel to everyone living in
his district, which was around 15 to 16,000 all living within the
distance of 100 miles. In order to preach to everyone, in the fall
of 1836 he decided to make a tour on foot of his entire
district.

In his autobiography he tells about this
tour and how he "preached three, four, five times a day, and had
much personal conversations with the natives on things pertaining
to the Kingdom of God." He goes on to share how in the Puna area
there was a greater response among the people, all eager to hear
the "word of life". He states, "Many listened with tears, and
after the preaching, when I supposed they would return to their
homes and give me rest, they remained and crowded around me so
earnestly, that I had no time to eat. And in places where I spent
my nights they filled the house to its entire capacity, leaving
scores outside who could not enter." This went on till midnight
and would resume at the crack of dawn. In the most popular area of
Puna, in two days, Coan preached ten sermons while spending the
time in between the services in personal conversation. A number of
people were converted, one being the High Priest of the Volcano, a
violent man who was a drunkard, adulteress, robber and murderer.
He broke and began to seek the Lord. This first tour was 30 days
long during which he not only preached, but examined 20 schools
with a total of 1,200 pupils.

It seems, from what I can gather, that
Titus Coan went on tour often times each year attempting to
personally touch for Jesus every person in his parish. In fact, he
had a unique and thorough follow-up system in order to keep track
of his converts and new members. Coan states, "I had a faithful
notebook in my pocket, and in all my personal conversations with
the people, by night and by day, at home and in my oft repeated
tours, I had noted down, unobserved, the names of individuals
apparently sincere and true converts. Over these persons I kept
watch, though unconsciously to themselves; and thus their life and
conversation were made the subjects of vigilant observation. After
the lapse of these, six, nine or twelve months, as the case might
be, selections were made from the list of names for examination.
Some were found to have gone back to their old sins; others were
stupid, or gave but doubtful evidence of conversions, while many
had stood fast and run well. Most of those who seemed hopefully
converted spent several months at the central station before their
union with the church. Here they were watched over and instructed
from week to week and from day to day, with anxious and unceasing
care. They were sifted and re-sifted with scrutiny, and with every
effort to take the precious from the vile. The church and the
world, friends and enemies, were called upon and solemnly charged
to testify, without concealment or palliation, if they knew ought
against any of the candidates.''

Coan goes on to tell how on his numerous
tours he would take his book with him and call the roll of church
members in every village. "When anyone did not answer the roll
call, I made inquiry why. If dead, I marked the date; if sick,
visited him or her, if time would allow; if absent on duty,
accepted the fact; if supposed to be doubting or backsliding, sent
for or visited him; if gone to another part of the island, or to
another island, I inquired if the absence would be short or
perpetual, and noted facts of whatever kind.'' This personal care
even extended to his parishioners who became sailors. When they
returned he would check as to whether they lived for the Lord or
not. Even while in Honolulu once a year he would put up a public
notice and 50 to 100 people who were his parishioners that had
moved to Honolulu would show up for a meeting.

An interesting example of personal care of
what was by 1841 the largest church in the world, is seen in the
1841 Missions report. It reads as follows:

(To be supplied)

Both Titus Coan and Lorenzo Lyons who was
also a missionary on the island of Hawaii, his district being
Waimea on the other side of the island from where Coan was, were
used mightily by God in the growth of the church. For example, in
six months from January to May of 1838, Coan admitted 639 new
members, and Lyons 2,600. Their two stations combined were
responsible for 3,239 of the 4,930 additions of formal members to
the church in 1837-1838.

In the following year, Coan admitted 5,244
and Lyons 2,300. This tremendous addition to the church brought
criticism from some of the more conservative missionaries and from
some of those back home in New England. Their concern was whether
people were really converted and could it be people were brought
into membership too fast. Some even criticized the way Coan and
Lyons preached and what happened in their meetings. But, Coan was
convinced what was happening was a work of the Spirit. He felt
strongly that to leave people outside the protection of the church
in the name of caution was to abandon them to "wander in darkness,
uncertain as to their own character, exposed to every temptation
of earth and hell, unknown and unrecognized as the sheep and lambs
of the Lord Jesus, and in danger from the all-devouring
lion.''

Coan had a tremendous concern for the lost
to be found. His love for lost souls drove him because he feared
that he would die before the task of seeing his people saved was
accomplished. This made him a "people person" having great
results. His critics were silenced when after a number of years,
it was found that his losses were not any different proportionally
than his critics who were over cautious in admitting new members.
The reason for this was his hard work in reaching, sharing, and
caring for people.

A final aspect of Titus Coan that
represents the kind of person God used mightily to bring forth the
Great Awakening was the fact that he saw things in light of a
spiritual battle. To Coan the work was a tremendous spiritual
battle. He referred to the "weapons of our warfare" and a militant
view of God. Repentance was brought about by "Jehovah's Hammer" or
the "battle-ax of the Lord," or the "Arrows of the Almighty". In
fact, he saw the struggle for souls as a fight that he wanted to
fight till he died.

The man of faith seems to be an integral
part of a great revival. Titus Coan was that man or at least
exemplified that kind of person. What is fascinating to note is
that even twenty years after the Great Awakening, Titus Coan was
asked to tour Oahu. The tour produced a revival and more people
were added to the church in Oahu than at any time since 1839, the
height of the Great Awakening. It was reported by Coan as the
"gentle revival". However, the fact that this could happen in
Titus Coan's later life speaks much to the fact that he was
genuinely a man of faith, a key in the Great Awakening.

Coan's wish was "to die in the field with
armor on, with weapons bright." God gave him that wish for in the
midst of a revival, he suffered a stroke and died praising God. He
had served the Lord for forty-seven years in Hilo and by 1870 had
received 13,000 members to his church, the largest number by any
pastor in his generation.

GOD'S MERCIFUL
JUDGMENT

"On the 7th of November, 1837, at the hour
of evening prayer, we were startled by a heavy thud, and a sudden
jar of the earth! The sound was like the fall of some vast body
upon the beach, and in a few seconds a noise of mingled voices
rising for a mile along the shore thrilled us like the wail of
doom. Instantly this was followed by a like wail from all the
native houses around us. I immediately ran down to the sea, where
a scene of wild ruin was spread out before me. The sea, moved by
an unseen hand, had all of a sudden risen in a gigantic wave, and
this wave, rushing in with the speed of a race-horse, had fallen
upon the shore, sweeping everything not more than fifteen or
twenty feet above high water mark into indiscriminate ruin." So
Titus Coan describes the great tidal wave that hit Hilo. Houses,
furniture and everything else along with two hundred people were
floating or struggling in the great waves. It was so unexpected
that no one had time to prepare for it. All one could do now was
hope their loved ones were not in the waves. Cries for help were
heard while frantic children, wives and husbands ran looking and
calling for lost family members.

Titus Coan goes on to comment that "had
this catastrophe occurred at midnight when all were asleep,
hundreds of lives would undoubtedly have been lost. Through the
great mercy of God, only thirteen were drowned." To Titus Coan
this tidal wave was as if God was speaking to the people to "Be ye
also ready." They began to listen. Titus Coan mentions how they
buried the dead, "fed, comforted, and clothed the living, and God
brought light out of darkness, joy out of grief, and life out of
death." He states, "Our meetings were more and more crowded, and
hopeful converts were multiplied.'' This was not only the case for
Hilo, but in other places in the islands that were affected by the
tidal wave. People realized their need for God when coming so
suddenly close to death. The revival increased in intensity
because God's third part of the Great Awakening, his merciful
judgment, had taken place.

THE MARKS OF THE
REVIVAL

In answering the question of how did The
Great Awakening happen, we have seen how the stage was set, how
God raised up a man of faith and others like him, and how his
merciful judgment was poured out.

This brings us to the fourth aspect of the
Great Awakening, what I call the marks of revival. Whether these
marks brought about the revival, are simply the results of the
revival, or how a revival is known to be happening, is not clear.
It can be said however, that these elements are common to other
recorded revivals and were clearly a part of Hawaii's Great
Awakening.

Prayer

The writers who recorded what happened
during the Awakening were struck by the tremendous emphasis of the
people on prayer. The missionaries in their annual meeting of 1836
had prayed and had sent requests to the United States for prayer
on behalf of the Sandwich Islands. The Hawaiian people themselves
it was noted had a unique ability to give themselves
wholeheartedly to prayer. Missionaries on each island reported a
tremendous interest in prayer. On Molokai, Mr. Hitchcock noted
that "a number were in the habit of rising an hour before light
and resorting to the school house to pray for the coming of the
Holy Spirit.'' This was before an awakening took place on Molokai.
Rufus Anderson in his book, History of the Sandwich Island
Mission... states, 'Missionaries declare that they had never
witnessed more earnest, humble, persevering wrestling in prayer,
than was exhibited by some of the native Christians at this time;
and that they had reason to bless God for being so greatly
edified, comforted, and assisted by their earnest supplications.''
This was not only true for the adults, but the children as well.
Mr. Baldwin reported how in Lahaina, for a lengthy period of time
that "one could scarcely go in any direction, in the sugar-cane or
banana groves, without finding these little ones praying and
weeping before God.'' An interesting preface to the revival was
what took place on board a ship that was loaded with
reinforcements from Boston for the Sandwich Island Mission. The
missionary team prayed both morning and evening and preached on
Sunday with a revival taking place on board ship. The captain, one
of his officers, and several on board ship made an open commitment
to Christ and were taken in as church members along with the
Hawaiian people on their arrival in the Sandwich
Islands.

A unique aspect of the Holy Spirit's work
in causing the people to pray was the kind of praying the people
participated in. The prayer was united and verbal, each one
expressing himself individually but all out loud together. Each
one would intercede over what the Holy Spirit had impressed on
their hearts to pray. They would pray earnestly and with much
emotion oblivious to the fact they had joined a whole chorus of
people praying out loud together. This kind of praying was unique
in the 1830's at least among the early New England missionaries
who had first come to the Sandwich islands therefore some of them
opposed it. However, for those who had experienced revival fires
in New England before joining the missionary team in the islands,
it was a mark of God's working. It seemed as though the Hawaiians
were fulfilling James 5:16, "The effective, fervent prayer of the
righteous man avails much." (NKJV).

Repentance

This brings us to the second mark of this
revival: repentance over sin was expressed openly. The people
desired to be righteous. At times such emotion was evoked that the
missionaries did not know how to handle it. Titus Coan reports
such an incident. He was holding an outdoor meeting in Puna while
preaching on "Repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus."
One man burst out in the middle of the meeting with much emotion
and tears saying, "Lord, have mercy on me; I am dead in sin."
Titus Coan goes on to record how his "weeping was so loud, and his
trembling so great, that the whole congregation was moved as by a
common sympathy. Many wept aloud, and many commenced praying
together. The scene was such as I had never before witnessed. I
stood dumb in the midst of this weeping, watching, praying
multitudes, not being able to make myself heard for about twenty
minutes.'' This soon became a pattern in the meetings. The burden
to be rid of sin, through confession of sin and restitution was
real. Loud crying, shrieks, falling down, and wailing was not
unusual in the meetings. Titus Coan reports, "I arrived yesterday
at 8:00 A.M. Found a large company of children collected...in the
meeting houses besides several hundreds of adults. I was a little
weary, but I felt the Spirit break upon my heart; so I went right
in among the children and fell upon my knees and looked up to
Heaven. The Holy Spirit fell instantly, so soon as I opened my
mouth. The place was shaken. The congregation was all in tears,
and there was such a crying out as I had not heard before. The
overt expression of repentance manifested in the meeting continued
for over two years. Some missionaries criticized Coan and Lyons
for allowing such displays. But, to Coan the physical
manifestations of repenters were a "token of the Holy
Spirit".

It is fascinating to note that holiness,
right living, and open repentance was much a part of the Great
Awakening that even after this move of God, people still saw this
kind of life style to be the normal Christian life. Rev. H.T.
Cheever who visited the islands not long after the Great Awakening
described a communion service.

"In the afternoon was the sacrament.
Kaipuholo, our host, had previously come to ask Mr. Bond (the
missionary in charge) if his wife might come to the communion. He
said that the evening before, after the preparatory lecture, she
had quarreled with her neighbors about her goats getting into
their enclosure. As we entered the church the man with whom she
had quarreled was confessing his sin before the whole congregation
and professing his repentance. His wife followed, and with great
dignity and self-possession, confessed the same."

"But Kaipuholo's wife remained silent. At
the communion when it was asked if any had been omitted in the
distribution, she arose to confess her sin, and when the elements
were passed to her, she partook with considerable hesitation. The
whole incident evinced a conscientiousness and sense of propriety
the more pleasing as it was entirely self-moved."

Hearers felt God's power so strongly that
their muscles quivered. They waited in "tremendous throes" like a
"dying giant or broken down with an "earthquake shock". Sometimes
the fallen lay "groaning on the ground for fifteen minutes or half
an hour after the fight was done!''

The Word of
Life

A third mark of the revival was the
tremendous hunger for God's word. The town of Hilo swelled to ten
times its original size growing from 1,000 people to 10,000. This
was due to people moving in from outlining areas so they could
attend church and hear God's word. Titus Coan first saw this
hunger manifested in his 1836 tour. He describes how people would
hear him speak in one town and walk over with him to the next town
so they could hear another message. Titus Coan mentions how during
his tours throughout his parish he saw the following take place.
He writes: "There were places along the routes where there were no
houses near the trail, but where a few families were living half a
mile or more inland. In such places, the few dwellers would come
down to the path leading their blind, and carrying their sick and
aged upon their backs, and lay them down under a tree if there was
one near, or upon the naked rocks, that they might hear of a
Savior. It was often affecting to see those withered and trembling
hands reached out to grasp the hand of the teacher, and to hear
the palsied, the blind, and the lame begging him to stop awhile
and tell them the story of Jesus.'' Protracted meetings, that is
meetings everyday became a common thing in each of the stations.
People could not get enough of God's word.

Dr. Wetmore tells of the style of life of
the Christians due to their hunger for God's word. He writes: "It
was intensely interesting in those earlier days to see Christians
keep with them at home and abroad their "ai-o-ka-la" (daily food),
and their hymn book, and to hear them day by day repeat over and
over again, (whole families of them), the passage of Scripture
specially designated that they might thoroughly commit it to
memory as a portion of their Sabbath school exercises, and their
strive to learn its meaning and the lesson it taught." Rev. Coan,
because of the hunger for God's word, would send out church
members from Hilo two by two to preach, throughout his
parish.

One final item that should be mentioned
that helped to encourage this hunger for God's word was the
printing and distributing of the Hawaiian language New Testament.
In fact, Queen Kaahumanu was given the first copy of the Hawaiian
New Testament on her death bed in 1832. This availability of God's
word in the language of the people and the fact a large number of
people had learned to read helped to foster a hunger to understand
what the scriptures meant and how it applied to one's
life.

Giving

The generosity of the people was a
fascinating mark of the revival. Titus Coan remembered how
although extremely poor his people did not want to come to church
empty handed. He writes, "Among their humble gifts, you will see
one bring a bunch of hemp, another a pile of wood for fuel, a mat,
a tappa, a male, a little salt, a fish, a fowl, a taro, a potato,
a cabbage, a little arrowroot, a few ears of corn, a few eggs. The
old and feeble and children who have nothing else to give, gather
grass wherewith to cover and enrich the soil. Each give according
to his ability and shuns to approach empty-handed."

The giving was not just in things, but in
time and talent. This was especially seen in the building of the
churches. The building of the church whether it was a timber
thatched with grass or structures made of stone or coral, the task
was undertaken willingly and joyously. The amount of work done for
the building of a single structure was incredible. If it was a
wood structure, the men who had axes went to the mountains and cut
down trees then transported the logs by hand to the building site.
This would need hundreds of people to complete the task, both men
and women. Others wove mats for the floor or thatched the roof
from grass and reeds they had been collecting. The task was even
greater when it came to stone constructed churches.

However, their giving was more than simply
their time or resources, they gave of themselves to the work of
the gospel. During the awakening it was not unusual to see people
bringing others to the meetings with them. Some of them were blind
or lame, elderly or the infirm. Their concern for others to hear
the word, motivated them to reach out and bring people to worship
with them.

The Work of the Holy
Spirit

Throughout this revival there was one
reoccurring theme, that the Great Awakening was a sovereign work
of the Holy Spirit. Everyone who wrote about the revival saw that
it was the Holy Spirit that caused the people to pray, to share
their faith, to hunger for God's word, to repent of sin, and to
give. The missionaries saw their powerful preaching of the gospel
as a unique work of the Holy Spirit. S.E. Bishop recalls as a
youngster, the impression made upon him on one Sunday morning at
the beginning of the revival. His father was preaching, but not
like he had done before. It, was Prophetically powerful. He writes
about his father's preaching: "He was usually colloquial in his
preaching, without special impressiveness of manner. On this
occasion, he seemed to be another man, flaming with the power of
the Spirit. I had at that time learned only a few words of
Hawaiian being sedulously kept from doing so. But, I remember the
impassioned emphasis with which the preacher said 'U'oki! U'oki!'
(Stop! Stop!). He was manifestly another man, with a divine power
inspiring him. I think that this was a common experience of the
missionaries."

The Spirit's work was not only seen in the
preaching, but even through unusual demonstrations of power. One
interesting example is what happened during one of Titus Coan's
meetings. He writes: "A young man came once into our meeting to
make sport slyly. Trying to make the young men around him laugh
during prayer, he fell as senseless as a log upon the ground and
was carried out of the house. It was sometime before his
consciousness would be restored. He became sober, confessed his
sins, and in due time united with the church.''

There was an awesome reverence for what the
Holy Spirit was doing. Titus Coan mentions how his wife "who's
soul was melted with love and longing for the weeping natives,
felt that to doubt it was the work of the Spirit, was to grieve
the Holy Spirit and to provoke him to depart from us.''

For all involved in this Great Awakening,
it was clear that God had demonstrated in their midst the reality
of Zechariah 4:6: "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit
says the Lord of Hosts."

THE AWAKENING
WANES

The revival made a major impact on the
nation and the Pacific. As to the nation, Hawaii became known as a
Christian nation. In the law code of 1846, the Christian faith was
established in this statement, "The religion of the Lord Jesus
Christ shall continue to be the established national religion of
the Hawaiian Islands.'' After a brief takeover of the government
by the British, the kingdom was restored on July 31, 1843.
Kamehameha III's speech was simple, but reflected the faith of the
people. "The life of the land, is preserved in righteousness." The
revival's effect in the Pacific was seen in that the native church
became so strong it sent out its own missionaries. The Hawaiian
Society of Foreign Missions was formed in 1850, with the desire to
share the gospel with other nations. On July 15, 1852, the first
Hawaiian missionaries set sail for the Caroline Islands with a
letter of greeting from King Kamehameha III to all the chiefs of
the islands of the Pacific urging them to receive the missionaries
kindly, and encouraged them to renounce their idols and worship
the true and living God.

Although the revival had a powerful effect
it waned. This was due to a number of items. First the nature of
revival is that it is like a wave that breaks against the shore
and draws back. There are seasons in God's working. Just as in the
natural realm, there are seasons in the spiritual realm. There is
a time for planting and a time of harvest. In spite of this, men
of faith see the harvest when others do not. They precipitate the
harvest through their vision, and through their perseverance
continue to bring people to God even though others have ceased.
Titus Coan is a good example of this for although the Great
Awakening had passed, he continued through his efforts to see
people added to the church, even seeing the gospel thrust into the
Pacific through the purchase of ships to take missionaries to
other island nations.

Secondly, the revival waned not simply
because of the nature of how God moved, but due to a number of
other factors. Hawaii became inundated with other religious
expressions. After a stormy beginning, the Catholics, under the
protection of the French government, established its mission on a
permanent basis in 1839. The Mormons arrived in the 1850's and the
Episcopalians in the 1860's. Coupled with this change came the
tremendous changes in population. The decline of the Hawaii
population that had begun in the thirties escalated in the 50's
through unbridled epidemics like smallpox and measles. With the
rise of the sugar industry came the need for workers and large
numbers of Chinese, then Japanese came into the islands bringing
their own religious beliefs and customs. By the end of the century
other groups had begun arriving in large numbers with each one
bringing with them their own traditional-religious beliefs. One
historical commentator interestingly saw the gold rush in
California as another factor. His point was that the life-style of
the population changed when money became the common medium of
exchange.'" With it came a shifting of people's minds from the
concerns of their soul to that of secular matters. Political
changes was another factor which caused much confusion and in some
cases resentment that hardened some to the gospel. Also, men like
Titus Coan were a dying breed. He continued in his evangelistic
fervor till he died, but others who followed him did not seem to
have the same kind of commitment to the lost. By 1870 the American
mission had closed its doors leaving the work to be carried on by
the national church. The church in Hawaii had come of age, but
there was a need for men of vision and without them the church
settled into the task of simply maintaining the work. Help from
missionaries' children who still lived in the islands was
disappointing, as far as the Preaching of the gospel was
concerned, since most chose to go into business and
politics.